Kenya

Kenya occupies 145th place (2014) in the ranking of the Human Development Index (HDI), conducted by the UNDP, which annually monitors the socio-economic development of countries in the world.

In spite of progress made in recent years in the field of education (Kenya is close to achieving the objective of universality of education), there still is a number of adverse phenomena which have a negative effect on the quality of the whole education system. For instance, a relatively low number of teachers of primary education remains a problem. In 2012, there were 57 pupils per one teacher (source). There is also the problem of access to public schools; in particular, this is the case in the informal urban settlements, where more than 40% of pupils from the most disadvantaged groups attend private schools (source). Differences by gender are minimal at the stage of primary education. Barriers to access to education for girls begin to be visible at the level of upper secondary education and become even deeper at the stage of higher education (source).

More than 75% of the population of Kenya is directly dependent on the acquisition of natural resources, which generate as much as 42% of the country's GDP (source). The problems of the environment, which is particularly vulnerable to climate change, include: water pollution caused by urban and industrial waste, deteriorating water quality resulting from the intensive use of fertilisers, deforestation and desertification and progressive degradation of land. Like in the case of other partner countries in the region of East Africa, Kenya is still far from achieving the Millennium Development Goal related to the availability of sanitation. Currently, it is used by less than 30% of the population in rural areas and a little over 30% of the residents of cities (source). The share of the population with access to electricity is low as well (in 2012 this was only 23%). Moreover, this access is characterised by frequent power cuts (source).

Development of entrepreneurship and the private sector is an undeniable priority of the Kenyan government. The report Doing Business 2015 showed Kenya's fall from 129th to 136th place in the ranking measuring favour of the administration and ease of doing business. In order to improve the business environment measures for development of infrastructure or solving the problems of lack of access to energy should be taken (source). One of the factors which limit development of the private sector is also the lack of qualified staff and poor links between the sector and technical education and vocational training. At the same time, the economy is unable to generate enough jobs. The share of unemployed people who do not enter education amounted to 22.3% for the general population – according to data from 2005 (source).